Japan midfielder Hasebe facing injury scare

Japan and Wolfsburg midfielder Makoto Hasebe has faced an injury scare ahead of his country’s World Cup opener against Cameroon next Monday.

The 26-year-old cut short his training session with the Blue Samurai Monday to check pain in his hip which he hurt in Japan’s 2-0 warm-up defeat by Ivory Coast in the Swiss city of Sion on Friday.

“The pain was bothering him and he went to a hospital to see if it is alright,” Japan Football Association spokesman Kazutake Nishizawa said. The extent of his problem was not immediately known.

Hasebe has played as a key defensive midfielder for Japan in recent years and as the capitain in their last two warm-up matches.

He showed up at Japan’s first full training session since their arrival in George on Sunday after an altitude training camp in the Swiss Alps resort of Saas-Fee.

But he was seen leaving the Outeniqua Park, a rugby ground refurbushed with football turf, after about 20 minutes.

Right back Yasuyuki Konno was also nursing his right knee he injured in the Cameroon friendly which saw Japan suffer a fourth straight international defeat in the run-up to the World Cup.